Cunard Apartments

Cunard Apartments fill the upper floors of Cunard House, a white rendered block standing right on Loch Promenade with Douglas Bay open in front of it. These are full self-catering flats rather than hotel rooms, and they were built on a generous scale.

You arrive at a signed doorway at street level, beside the grill restaurant that takes the ground floor, and then you climb. There is no lift, so the flats above are reached by stairs. The front rooms look straight out over the promenade gardens, the sea wall and the water past them.

Bay windows over the water

The sitting rooms are the draw. Each has a broad bay of windows facing the sea, so the sofas are turned towards the view, with a slim wall-mounted fire below the pictures. Floors are carpet in some flats and pale boards in others. Kitchens run to cream units, dark stone worktops, slate tiles and a breakfast bar with stools, plus an oven, hob, dishwasher, microwave and washing machine. Where the kitchen is its own room, a solid oak table seats six next door.

Sleeping seven

The two-bedroom apartment takes up to seven. One room has a double bed, the second a double and a single, and the sitting-room sofa folds out for the last two. One flat is set up with bunk beds and a chair at the window. Bathrooms are plain and white, mostly a bath under a shower screen with a heated rail for towels, and one bedroom opens onto its own shower room.

Out on Loch Promenade

The sunken flower beds, benches and sea wall of the promenade begin at the door, and the sands curve away past them towards the Tower of Refuge on its rock. The shops, ferry terminal and restaurants of Douglas are all an easy walk. Parking is on the street, inside the promenade disc zone.

Good for

Families and groups who want separate bedrooms, a kitchen and that bay window, without giving up the middle of town.